Counting Stars
by BellaSalvatore1918
Summary: In 1864, Damon Salvatore gets wounded in battle against the Union and has to go to an infirmary to get nursed back to health in order to return. Abigail Ainsley, a vampire who helps the sick and wounded at the cause of the war, ends up taking care of Damon as he recovers. It's not long before he falls for her and figures out her secret, but there are people who want her dead. D/OC


**Hey, everyone! It's time for something new again. This story's been in my head for a really long time now, and if you didn't know, it was on my profile for stories to come. And, this weekend, I decided to work on something new, so...here we are. **

**So, here's the deal, this is going to be an 1864 story with Damon as a Confederate soldier, obviously. Katherine will most likely not be ****_romantically _****involved with Damon, but she may be present later on. It might continue into the present day, but we'll have to see how everything goes with this story. I'm not too sure of it. **

**Anyway, please enjoy the chapter and tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own The Vampire Diaries, especially Damon Salvatore. However, I do own my original characters, Abigail Ainsley and Lucy Walker, the writing, and the plot line.**

**Note****: They're obviously speaking in German in the Prologue, but for the purpose of this story, it's going to be in English so everyone can understand. **

**...**

**Prologue**

**_Germany, 1640_**

_There was an overcast sky hanging above the tiny house. In a way, it was mirroring how the people in the tiny village felt at the time. The town had been damned with the Plague and there was no way of stopping it. It had spread like wildfire, dominating the town and wiping the population vastly. The disease had found it's most recent home in Abigail Ainsley, daughter of the town's medical advisor, Martin Ainsley. He had tried to keep her sheltered from the Plague, but he knew it was only a matter of time until it breached the walls of his own home. Martin's wife had already died of this Black Death that infected everyone in the town. Her death was brutal and had left her begging for mercy on her own soul, but God did not obey her demands. She went out with several cries and screams until it all slowed down and came to an end. _

_And now it would happen to his daughter, but Martin Ainsley was not going to let this damned illness take his only family. _

_"You are sure that this will work?" he pressured the man before him, who was wrapped in a black cape. He kept his head ducked as Martin talked to him. _

_"If you want your daughter to suffer no more pain, Mister Ainsley, this is the only way," the man said darkly. The sun streamed in from the center of the sky, beating down on both of them at the front door of the Ainsley cottage. Inside, the screams of his daughter rung, making him cringe. _

_"Yes, yes, of course," Martin rushed. He gestured inside. "I have what you asked for." _

_"Good," the hidden man spoke. "Now invite me in and I will heal your daughter of her illness." _

_Martin nodded and turned back to the cottage and entered the small house. "Come in," he said quietly, and the hidden creature before him nodded once and entered the small cottage to save Martin Ainsley's daughter. The screams grew louder and louder. _

_Once inside, the hidden man removed the hood of his robe to face Martin. Martin gasped once at the paleness of the man's face, but he rarely had time to decipher the meaning of it before the man spoke. _

_"You must wait outside," the man instructed the worried father. _

_"But—"_

_"That was not a request, Mister Ainsley, that was a demand." _

_Martin flinched, but thought it best that he not argue with a creature that was so skeptical. With another nod, he stepped outside of the cottage and waited. _

_Meanwhile, the man turned back to witness the screaming, aching girl thrashing on her sleeping chamber. Her skin was coated with sweat and her hands were shaking. Her blonde hair was stringy and stuck to her face, though she was obviously too much in pain to care. She couldn't have been older than two decades, give or take some odd years. _

_Without wasting any more time, the man went over to the thrashing girl and put a cold hand on her forehead to soothe her. He let out a hiss to calm her, and she looked up at him through slits for eyes. _

_"What…are you doing?" she asked through chattering teeth. "No one is to be around me." _

_"I am immune to this plague," the man told her. "Your sickness will not affect me." _

_Abigail let out a cry of pain as she rolled over on her side. "What are you here for?" she asked after the pain subsided. The man hushed her again. _

_"Don't speak," he instructed her as he felt his eyes transform into the demon he really was. Under normal circumstances, Abigail would've screamed, but in this circumstance, the pain was much worse than the fear. "I am here to help." _

_She took in a slight hitch of breath. "Are you here to kill me?" Abigail whispered. In her mind, that was help. _

_"Not yet." _

_Bringing his other wrist to his mouth, the man drew his fangs and bit into the flesh, earning a circle of blood on the inside of his wrist. Quickly, he pulled it forward to meet Abigail's mouth, and she struggled for just a moment against the wrist, until she finally got a taste and succumbed to the deliciousness of the blood. The man waited until she had enough blood in her system until he pulled it away. _

_When she swallowed, Abigail furrowed her eyebrows. "I…feel…better," she said slowly, astonished at the feeling. She looked up at the man. "What did you do to me?"_

_"I healed you," he started. "With my blood." _

_"Your…blood?" Abigail repeated. "I-I don't understand." _

_"My blood is special, Abigail," the man began to explain. "And…soon, your blood will be special as well." _

_"Special?" she asked. "You mean…magical?" _

_The man smiled slightly. "Not exactly." With a slight pause, he took out something from his pocket and held it up. It was a ring – one made with a bright blue gemstone carefully snug inside a twisted band of silver. It was unlike anything Abigail had ever seen – and she was a noble who wanted for little. The man put the ring on her glistening finger, and it fit perfectly. She looked down at it in wonder for a moment. _

_Again, her breath hitched. "What happens now?" she whispered, looking back up at the man. _

_"You die," the man said slowly, letting his eyes transform for her to see. She swallowed. "It is the only way to repay me for saving your life." _

_Without another word, the man took his hand and placed it under her chin, and Abigail opened her mouth to ask what was happening; but before she could even get a single syllable out, her neck turned, and she was dead. _

_"What was that?" someone demanded, and the man who killed Abigail Ainsley turned around to see her father at the door, peering inside of the small cottage. The vampire stood and Martin Ainsley looked at the floor to see his dead daughter. With a flash of red eyes, Martin looked up at the main. "You killed her?" _

_"I did what needed to be done." _

_"I asked you to save her from this wretched disease!" Martin shouted. "You killed my daughter!" _

_"I only did what needed to be done," the man repeated. "Your daughter will no longer be in pain." _

_Martin rushed to his daughter, who laid on her bed with her neck to the side, her eyes closed shut. With gritted teeth, after a few moments to take in the despair of it all, Martin looked up at the man. "You did not keep your promise to me." _

_"I told you that your daughter would suffer no more," the man reasoned. "And she will not."_

_Martin straightened. "You took the only family that I had left." _

_"I did only what you asked me to do."_

_"I did not ask for her to die!" Martin raved, his voice loud and clear. "You, sir, have broken our deal." _

_"She will remain alive and well after she awakens," the man said sternly, explaining everything to Martin. "I promised that she would live, but I did not promise that you would be able to continue your life with her." He paused. "Upon making this deal, you have promised me your daughter for the rest of eternity, and I, sir, am honoring my part." _

_Martin stood for a moment, trying to decipher the words that the demon before him spoke. "Eternity?" Martin repeated slowly, making what he did of the conversation. "You…you damned her?" _

_"I did only what needed to be done." _

_"What are you?" Martin shouted. The man only smiled in return. "You're the one who has been taking children and women from the bedrooms in the night! You're the one who has been the cause of all the deaths in our town, are you not?" The man said nothing. "You demon!" _

_"I would be cautious of your words, Mister Ainsley." _

_"I know what you are," Martin hissed. "There have been stories passed through towns of residents drained of blood. Someone who has been taking their people from them and killing without remorse." He paused. "It was you, wasn't it?" _

_"I suggest you end this conversation before I end you," the man snapped. Martin was quiet for a moment. "Now, you have a choice. Let me leave with your daughter to spare your own life or continue delaying my precious time and lose yours in the process." _

_"I will not let you leave with my daughter," Martin said at last. "Death is better than this alternative." _

_The man shrugged. "Then you must die," he said simply, and his face transformed into the true demon that he was. Martin gasped of surprise, and in the next moment, the man was gone. And, little did Martin Ainsley know, the vampire was behind him, ready to attack. _

_But Martin was not going down without a fight. With a quick understanding, Martin turned around to see the man lunging at him, and with tremendous effort, he tried to push the demon away from his body. The fight raged between the vampire and the human, the vampire obviously victorious throughout it all. The time came when a wooden table had been broken by Martin's fall, and the vampire hissed on top of the human and braced himself for the feed. _

_It was just as the vampire began to sink its fangs into Martin's neck that the human pushed one of the wooden pieces into the vampire's heart, and – in a mere instant – the vampire stopped cold and rose to face Martin, who was terrified for his life. But Martin had gotten the vampire right in the heart, and in a mere instant, the vampire collapsed on the floor beside the doctor, dead. _

_But it wasn't without consequence. _

_Martin was beginning to lose consciousness as he looked down to see a piece of stray wood in his abdominal area, blood pooling around the wound. His eyes fluttered, but there was no hope. In minutes, he would be dead. _

_But not before his daughter awakened. _

_With a gasp, Abigail shot up in the bed, sucking virtually all of the air out of the room with her terrified panting. She looked around to get aware of her surroundings – surroundings that were much sharper and clearer than usual. Abigail did not notice anything was wrong until she looked beside her to see the man who had killed her – dead – on the floor with a wooden piece in his chest. Beside him laid her father, and that's when it clicked. _

_"No," she whispered and got out of the bed quickly, rushing to her father. Martin laid on the floor with short, quick breaths, signaling the end that was near. "No, no, father, please," she pleaded. She looked around anxiously before remembering what the vampire did, and she bit into her own wrist. With a squeal, she drew blood and offered it to her father. With a limp hand, he held it up and stopped her from feeding him._

_"No," he responded quietly. "I do not want it, Abigail." _

_"Don't be ridiculous," Abigail said frantically. "It'll heal you. You'll get better." _

_"And if I die I become what you are," Martin responded, and she flinched. "And death is better than being a demon for the rest of eternity." _

_She shook her head. "You don't have to die." _

_"But I do," he replied and looked at her through half-open eyes. "But before I go, I ask only one thing of you, Abigail," he whispered. _

_"Anything." _

_Martin took in a wheezing breath. "Do not become a creature of the night," he pleaded. "With your eternity, I would hope you would use your advantage to be a better person than the rest of them out there." He swallowed, practically swallowing his own thick, red blood that drove Abigail insane. But not was not the time to think about how appetizing the blood looked to her. She focused on her father's words. "I can only ask that you help instead of hurt." _

_She couldn't answer. Her father would've done anything to keep her alive – and now he refused to let her help him. How was that just? She did not want to live alone any more than he did. _

_But before anything else could be said, his heart slowly came to a stop, and she recognized the sound cease. _

**...**

**Chapter 1**

**_Tennessee_**_**, 1863**_

The sounds of moaning and sick cries filled my ears as I walked outside of the barn used as a medical infirmary and soaked a ragged old cloth in a bucket of ice-cold water to soothe one of my patient's sweats. I took the cloth out of the water and wrung it out so that I did not waste all of the water that we had on one patient that was so far injured that I wasn't sure I would be able to bring him back – naturally, anyway.

"Abigail!" someone shouted, and I turned my head to see one of the other nurses, Cordelia, rushing towards me, pulling up the long skirt on her dress to slightly jog. I got up from my bending position and stood straight to meet her worried gaze. "Soldiers have just showed up with a couple men that have been wounded pretty badly – they said they need our best," Cordelia rushed out. We began to walk inside of the barn where the screams grew louder.

"Where are they?" I asked, looking around. Cordelia gestured towards the farthest side of the barn where the other entrance was.

"Over there. Here." She reached forward and grabbed the cold compress that I was holding. "I'll take care of your current patient."

"Thank you, Cordelia." With a nod, Cordelia left to the other direction, and I moved to the farthest side of the barn where everyone was panicking around the new patients. Cots began to move and small beds were being made on the floor so we would have enough room.

"What happened?" I asked in the general direction, taking any answer I could get. I heard a response from one of the men who brought the soldiers in.

"The Union," someone said simply. "A group of men surrounded ours and began to shoot."

"Most of them are dead, but we managed to salvage these ones."

"Thank you," I said quickly. That was all I needed. "Now I'm sure you gentlemen will be needed back at your stations, I will take care of it from here," I assured them. Reluctantly, they all left, one by one, back to fight this ridiculous war that was killing so many innocent people on the battlefields.

I turned to the nurses to get to treating the patients that were minutes away from dying if I didn't help them. Screams filled my ears, but I talked over them to instruct my colleagues to help me and get me what I needed so I can stitch up their wounds. After I told them what I needed, I looked at each and every one of the bleeding patients and tried to keep my hunger under control.

_Deep breath. _

_Deep breath. _

_Deep breath. _

And after the third time, I was fine, and resumed saving the soldiers.

**...**

I always waited until the rest of the nurses went back to their homes at night, when everyone was mostly done with their duties. The fighting would cease for a couple hours until someone else came towards with a new tactic, and the bloodshed would continue. I couldn't lie to myself – I craved it. But I kept myself under control by feeding every once in a while off of my patients, never killing them. I was surprised, myself, that I had that much self control, but I did it for the greater good. Two hundred and some odd years and I was still alive. Still helping others.

Doing just what my father asked me to do.

With a long, deep sigh, I twisted my hair up to let it pin itself into a bun, and I began to set to work on determining which of the patients in the infirmary needed healing and which did not need such dire measures. I wiped my hands on my dress and looked at each one of the patients, examining their wounds. There were the less serious ones – the ones that I or some other nurse had managed to heal their wounds so that extra measures wouldn't be necessary. One thing that I tried to avoid was amputation, but sometimes, it didn't always work that way. If I healed every single one of the patients in this room, I would – no doubt – either be branded as a witch or branded as a demon. Granted, I bared the species of a demon, but I – myself – was no demon, or, at least, I tried not to be.

It wasn't until the fifth patient that I checked that I decided could use my advantage. It was a civilian – a young girl who had accidentally been shot on the battlefield, near to the heart. It was a surprise that she had lasted this long, but this young girl did not want to die. And who was I to let her?

She was sleeping, soundly, her heart at a steady beat. I would give her a future. I would give her hope.

With another exhale, I bit into my wrist and drew the blood I needed. With my other hand, I put it under her head and forced her to sit up, waking her in just the slightest. I pressed my wrist to her mouth and she drank it, her eyes slowly opening, her hands moving to keep my wrist to her lips. I waited until I felt the need to pull my wrist away, knowing that she had had enough.

When I removed my wrist, she looked up at me. "What did you do?" she whispered, frightened.

"Shh," I hushed her. "There is no need to be afraid," I compelled. The girl obeyed me – like they always did. "You will not remember what I just did. Go back to rest," I ordered. With a tired exhale, the girl leaned back and closed her eyes, and within a moment, she was fast asleep.

I did the same for at least three others, trying to salvage their lives. One night a week I tried to do this – tried to save whomever I could. It was something that I could not resist. I was at a greater advantage than the rest of them, and living and hurting was far worse than living and helping. Just like I was told.

Lastly, I came to the soldiers that had been brought in today. I hadn't been able to save them all – two of them died on me before I could save them. The rest were near death, and I had to do something. I couldn't save all of them, but I had to at least _try_.

They were all mostly asleep, though I was sure that they were half-awake, although they were probably oblivious to everything. I looked at all seven men on their cots, some of them coughing, some of them sleeping soundly.

How could you deal with letting someone die that had a family – which I was sure that mostly all of them did. It hurt me inside, just a little, to realize that I couldn't save everyone, despite my efforts. If I did, it would not only look suspicious, it would be handing the cards back to their fate. I couldn't interfere with everyone.

I chose two out of the seven - the two with the worst injuries – to give my blood to. I would make sure that they would not die, and I also would make sure that I didn't give them enough blood to heal them so fast. The blood only healed their wounds to the point of where it was probably not infected anymore. They would live, but they would still be wounded. I couldn't break the rules for everyone.

When it was all over, I took my bright blonde hair down from it's self-pinned bun and walked outside to wash my wrist, even though it was already healing from my self-inflicted wound. I poured cold water onto my arms and washed, and by the time that I finished washing all the excess blood off of my wrist, it was all healed up. I dried my hands with cloth and headed back to the main village to get some rest before I returned to helping the wounded tomorrow when the sun shone in the sky.

**...**

**Not the best writing I've ever done, but...I think it's gets the point across. Chapter 1 was a little short, but I did have the prologue in it as well. **

**More interesting things to happen in the next chapter, where Damon will enter. I was so stuck on how to write that last part because I wanted Damon to be brought in, but I felt like it would be going way too fast. **

**Please tell me if you like it or not, I'm not too sure about it myself. So please tell me what you thought! **

**_Love, _**

**_BellaSalvatore1918_**

**_X_**


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